Meaning & use
white plague
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Meaning
noununcountableold-fashionedmedical
An older name for tuberculosis, used when the disease killed huge numbers of people and left many of them pale and wasted.
Grammar: Used without an or the in general statements: white plague spread through the slums. Sometimes preceded by the.
Patterns
- die of the white plague
- the white plague
In the nineteenth century, the white plague swept through crowded cities and took thousands of young lives.
The poet's brother died of the white plague before he turned twenty.
Sanatoriums on the mountains were built to treat victims of the white plague with fresh air and rest.
Common combinations
- die of the white plague
- Many writers of that era died of the white plague.
- victim of the white plague
- She nursed a victim of the white plague through his last winter.
- ravaged by the white plague
- The village had been ravaged by the white plague for decades.
- fear of the white plague
- Fear of the white plague made people avoid crowded rooms.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tuberculosis
- Tuberculosis is the standard medical term and is the right choice for any modern or scientific writing.
- consumption
- Consumption is another old name for tuberculosis, stressing how the body seemed to waste away rather than how pale it looked.
- TB
- TB is the everyday abbreviation of tuberculosis and sounds neutral, not historical.
- phthisis
- Phthisis is an old medical term for wasting lung disease and is far more technical than white plague.
Word family
- plague noun
- a deadly infectious disease that spreads quickly
- tubercular adjective
- relating to or suffering from tuberculosis
- tuberculosis noun
- the bacterial lung disease once called the white plague
- sanatorium noun
- a hospital where tuberculosis patients used to be treated
Commonly confused: white plague or Black Death?
white plague vs Black Death
The Black Death was the bubonic plague that killed millions in medieval Europe. The white plague was tuberculosis, a different disease with a different cause.
Practice
A historian writing about nineteenth-century sanatoriums would most likely use the term white plague to mean ____.
Choose one answer.
White plague was an old name for tuberculosis. Bubonic plague is a tempting wrong choice because of the word plague, but it was called the Black Death.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “white plague”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.